As I continue to pray for the kingdom of God to come to earth, and as I learn how to live according to Jesus' kingdom teachings, I realize that I am not met without adversity. Recently, I got a taste of that adversity at work. It bitterly reminded me that the body of Christ still has much work to do in this world, and as Christians we have many challenges to overcome.
We have a new employee named Elizabeth from Guatemala. She's fluent in English, works hard, and is outgoing. Very outgoing. It's something that our management has noticed with disdain. One night I overheard a manager complaining about how Elizabeth spends too much time talking to fellow employees rather than the customers. Understandable. But what he said next shocked me. His exact words were, "If she doesn't stop that, she's going to find herself out of a job," followed by, "I'll do it. You know I'll do it."Obviously there was a problem, but he was taking no measures to speak to her about it and try to resolve it. Instead, he was going straight to the most extreme form of consequence without informing her there was even a problem to begin with.
In the past, I've noticed that our management treats the Hispanic employees more strictly than the American employees. If an American messes up an order it's no big deal. If a Hispanic messes up an order they are shouted at (in a language they don't fully understand) and might lose some hours on the next schedule, depending upon how upset it made the manager. Although I didn't approve of their behavior, I never spoke up in defense of my fellow workers. I cleared every instance of management's unfair treatment from my mind. But when I heard that they were considering firing Elizabeth over her propensity to chat too long, I became angry. A part of my anger is due to the fact that I have become good friends with her and don't want to see her go, but the larger and more important side of it is the cold and unjust way management treats the Hispanic workers (who work harder and longer than most all of the American employees) that has gone on for so long without the chance for them to properly explain or defend themselves.
How can men who claim a belief in Christ and claim to practice his principles treat other men unfairly based on their nationality? In America it seems as though faith in Christ has been married to our citizenship and our social standing. Many Americans see themselves as the most upright and Christian of all people in the world, and anyone else who comes from another nation, culture, or religion is inferior to them. Furthermore, they believe that their self-created superiority gives them complete freedom to unjustly oppress foreigners. Our management uses that way of thinking to treat Hispanic employees. But this is the kind of injustice and mistreatment that Jesus taught against, not advocated. It must be changed.
Elizabeth's predicament was just the icing on the cake. I feel compelled to somehow stand in the way of our management's mistreatment and the Hispanics' helplessness. Perhaps it is a great blessing to be an American, but I believe that blessing must be used to help the foreigner, not oppress him. Jesus didn't stand over the sinner to bring him more condemnation, rather he stood with the sinner to protect him from those who unjustly condemned. He was compassionate, not condemning, using his strength to advocate for the oppressed and unfortunate. I have been called, as an American Christian, to use my strength in the same way as Christ. It's dangerous to fight injustice, but it is our God-given purpose.
"You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." Exodus 23:9
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